


To Help

by Katherine



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: Cybernetics, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-10
Updated: 2017-12-10
Packaged: 2019-02-13 06:00:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12977589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katherine/pseuds/Katherine
Summary: By the time Gamora was on her way to rest, Rocket was lurking outside of her room.





	To Help

The mission had gone fairly well, without significant injury to civilians or to the Guardians themselves. Most of them were tired by the end of it. Gamora herself could have stayed active for much longer, due to her enhancements, and Drax was not one to show fatigue in battle. But Mantis was drooping, Peter's prized leather coat had more scorch marks on it, and Rocket was actually favouring one arm.

By the time Gamora was on her way to rest, Rocket was lurking outside of her room. She stopped six paces from him, keeping silence as a form of question. She had not noted anything badly amiss after the ruckus of the day, but the timing was suspicious.

Rocket said shortly, reluctantly, "Groot used to help me scan myself. But he's too little now. And I need to check," he trailed off uncharacteristically.

 _Level of function,_ Gamora thought. Or, more ominously, _rate of what is compromised._ But what she filled in aloud was, "Parameters."

Rocket's ears twitched flat, then forward again. "Right," he said. And then he offered her the tool. It fit strangely in her hand, meant for a smaller grip. It was obviously custom-made, undoubtedly by Rocket himself.

"This'll signal me. Sound codes," he said with an irritating lack of detail. Irritating yet understandable, for such a modified being as Rocket was. As Gamora herself was. Gamora understood that he did not wish to share information about settings. Nor even to flag expected readings. Any sharing of information was a potential vulnerability.

Rocket was showing teeth. "You don't record, don't take notes. Don't try to remember," he snarled, a mirthless edge of laughter mixed in. He and Gamora had never compared augmentations, but enhanced memory one that was all but standard.

She said, solemn as acknowledging the rules of a sanctioned duel, "I will not." In acquiescing to all these boundaries of what she would not try, she was setting as fact that she would help. There were similarities between the two of them that they had never acknowledged aloud. Ways to guess at each other, and ways, today, to assist.


End file.
